By the Grace of G-d 5th of Teveth, 5735 Brooklyn, N.Y

Greeting and Blessing:

I am in receipt of your letter and the preceding one, in which you write that you met a Greek and you mention some aspects of ancient Greek philosophy, etc.

I trust that you know that our Jewish Sages of old came in contact with the Greek ancients and had discussions with them, though these are recorded only succinctly in various sources.

Having had close contact with the ancient Greek philosophers, our Sages were well aware of the latter’s ideas and doctrines. Nevertheless, our Sages formulated their own conclusions and tenets, based on pure monotheism as revealed at Sinai, and their teachings were accepted by all Jews with such conviction that they implemented them in their daily life despite all the difficulties to the point of actual martyrdom.

In light of the above, it is surprising that any Jew should want to re-examine all sorts of philosophies and theories to ascertain for himself which are true and valid, etc. In any case, how could an individual or group of individuals in the span of a life time, undertake any such investigation, with any degree of thoroughness, while ignoring the fact that generation after generation of wise men, who had consecrated their entire lives to study these selfsame problems, had arrived at unanimous conclusions as to what the Jew’s true path in life is. This, moreover, has been historically amply verified. For we have seen that Jews, whether as individuals or communities, who followed this path have survived even under the most adverse circumstances, while those individuals or groups who deviated from this path, survived only for a relatively short time and eventually either returned to the fold or were lost.

To illustrate the above, it would be the same as, for example, a person would say that he would not accept the conclusion of a professor or engineer or a physician, but would rather study through the various textbooks and himself become the final authority to decide what to accept and what not. There is surely no need to elaborate on the obvious.

To sum up the above, it was not intended as a homily, but to reemphasize the obvious validity of our Torah, called Toras Emes, and at the same time Toras Chayim, to remind us that it is our true teacher and guide in the daily life and that this is not simply blind faith, but something that has been verified and confirmed throughout our long history. It is, therefore, up to every Jew to make the Torah his actual experience by fulfilling the Mitzos in the daily life, which is also the way to obtain insight into their deeper meaning and significance.

With blessing, for the Lubavitcher Rebbe,

By

(Secretary)